Association Of Volleyball Professionals

Capistrano Beach's Adam Johnson and Randy Stoklos of Pacific Palisades have been fined $7,500 each and Johnson has been suspended for one tournament by officials of the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals beach tour. Johnson and Stoklos violated tour rules by using a conflicting sponsor's equipment. Stoklos will be eligible to play this weekend in Grand Haven, Mich., but Johnson must sit out because he used the conflicting sponsor's water bottles and towels on several occasions.

With its stock trading over the counter at 8 cents a share, the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals announced Friday it was pulling the plug on being a publicly traded company. The AVP, which is anchored by its AVP Crocs Beach Volleyball Tour, is not going out of business; on the contrary, the company is faring reasonably well given the gloomy economic climate.

Does the fine always fit the crime? In November, 1990, the National Football League fined the New England Patriots $72,500 for the sexual harassment of Boston Herald sportswriter Lisa Olson. The Patriots were fined $50,000, along with players Zeke Mowatt ($12,500) and Robert Perryman and Michael Timpson ($5,000 each). In August, 1992, the Assn.

AVP Pro Beach Volleyball returns to one of its marquee events this weekend, in Manhattan Beach, amid fresh optimism about the struggling sport's future. The series hopes this year's Manhattan Beach Open, part of the AVP Crocs Tour, will capitalize on the excitement of having two of its top teams win gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. Tour operator AVP Inc. also received a $3.

Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos have been fined $35,000 each and suspended for one tournament because they skipped last weekend's $100,000 Seal Beach Open pro beach volleyball tournament. The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals' board of directors voted late Tuesday night to fine Smith and Stoklos the tour-record amount and ban them from playing in Santa Cruz this weekend.

Officials with the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals men's beach tour are planning to expand with a women's division this season, a move that could jeopardize the future of the Women's Professional Volleyball Assn. tour. Officials with the women's tour and the Women's Sports Foundation are upset with the AVP, which is attempting to sign eight of the top WPVA players to six-year contracts. Sources said the contracts are worth $20,000 to $40,000 per player, depending on their ranking.

Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos are skipping the $100,000 Seal Beach Open pro beach volleyball tournament this weekend to play in Spain, and the decision might be a costly one. The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals' board of directors could fine Smith and Stoklos a minimum of $10,000 each and suspend them for a tournament for missing Seal Beach, a violation of the tour's players agreement, AVP President Jon Stevenson said.

Kent Steffes, bronzed beach god, Olympic medalist, towering millionaire, is furious. From his aluminum chair, he roars about the stupidity and improbity of his fellow athletes, top players whom he blames for the rotten state of professional beach volleyball. "I want to find the truth," he declares. "One way is to depose people." It's the second day of a three-day volleyball tournament in Seal Beach in July featuring the most famous male players in the country.

If anyone on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Tour forgot what the Seal Beach stop was famous for, they were quickly reminded. Winds reaching 15 mph gave players trouble all day Friday, the first day of the $50,000 AVP Open at Seal Beach. This is the first year Seal Beach has hosted an AVP Tour stop since it was dropped from the schedule after 1995. Ball control and low passes are the keys to success at the double-elimination tournament, and those who mastered those aspects advanced.

Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana are playing again on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals tour--for now. Blanton and Fonoimoana, among the top beach volleyball teams in the United States, will play in an AVP event in Belmar, N.J., this weekend, one month after they were suspended by the AVP because they registered for an international tournament in Italy instead of an AVP tournament in Muskegon, Mich. But in order to qualify for the Olympics, they may challenge their AVP contract again.

Holly McPeak, one of the most accomplished women's beach volleyball players of all-time, announced Tuesday that the 2008 season, her 18th as a professional, would be her last. McPeak, 38, is a three-time Olympian who won a bronze medal with Elaine Youngs in 2004. She has 72 career victories worldwide, which is third only to Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh -- both of whom passed McPeak last year -- and she is a four-time AVP most valuable player and seven-time defensive player of the year.

The AVP Tour is in Manhattan Beach this weekend with all its stars in tow -- a welcome relief for the players, agents, attorneys and tour officials who for most of this season have been battling behind the scenes. The issue: players' rights, with the most pressing concern whether athletes could skip certain AVP events to play on the international tour and earn valuable Olympic qualification points.

In a decision that dissenters say sets a precarious precedent, the California Coastal Commission approved a proposal by the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour that will allow the AVP to charge admission for 90% of spectators at the Hermosa Beach Open. The proposal, which passed by a 6-5 margin Wednesday, will generate additional revenue for the financially struggling tour, and help keep the sport on Southern California sands, instead of moving the tournaments to venues that allow admission fees.

Summertime on Southern California beaches has long been known for blue skies, surfers and bikini-clad bodies. But one staple of the beach lifestyle may soon be on its way out. The AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour is considering moving three of its unprofitable events off local beaches because of a dispute with the California Coastal Commission over how many fans can be charged for admission.

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals positioned itself for unprecedented growth last week when it completed a groundbreaking merger agreement that would make it a publicly traded company. The merger with Othnet Inc., originally signed in June and completed on Feb. 28, makes the AVP the first professional sports league in the United States to go public and is the latest in a series of moves by AVP Commissioner Leonard Armato to resuscitate a tour that filed for bankruptcy in 1999.

Beach volleyball players have long recognized the Manhattan Beach Open as the top event on the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals Nissan Series and fans of the sport hold the tournament in high regard. But what the so-called "Wimbledon of Beach Volleyball" needs to attain true major championship status is growth, something the AVP tour has been pushing for, but city of Manhattan Beach officials have met with lukewarm enthusiasm.

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals has two new partners, and they aren't breweries or sun-block makers. They're networks. NBC and Fox Sports Net have agreed to invest in the AVP and will receive minority stakes in the beach volleyball tour as it continues to crawl out of the fiscal hole it fell into more than five years ago.

The Hermosa Beach City Council and Manhattan Beach City Council have both decided against joining the Assn. of Volleyball Professionals in its lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission. The association filed a lawsuit last week challenging the Coastal Commission's decision to ban paid seating at any public event held between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The Assn. of Volleyball Professionals' tour begins today at Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the first of 12 stops around the United States from now to October. And perhaps more to the point, it is the first event in the buildup to the Athens Olympics in August. Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes won the gold medal during beach volleyball's debut at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and Dain Blanton and Eric Fonoimoana won four years later at Sydney, marking a sweep of sorts for U.S. men.

There was supposed to be an adjustment period, to get used to playing in front of hometown crowds, to adapt to the different style of play on the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. It didn't take any time at all. Misty May and Kerri Walsh have won all four AVP Nissan Series tournaments they have entered, plus their last two international tournaments, and are one of the favorites to win a gold medal next year at the Athens Olympics.